Your Neighbor: Glover Family spent generations as Sherrill lifeguards

Al Glover, front, poses with, back row from left, granddaughters Emily O’Herien, 16, and Mackenzie O’Herien, 13, and his daughter BeeAnn O’Herien at the Sherrill Pool on July 21. Glover was the first director when the pool opened in 1970 and his progeny have followed his footsteps as lifeguards.
Photo Special to the Dispatch by Mike Jaquays

Al Glover, front left, poses with some of the Sherrill Pool swimmers of the past in this vintage photo from 1971. The pool opened in 1970, giving area residents an alternative to their former swimming spot at Sunset Lake in Kenwood.
Photo Courtesy of the Sherrill Pool archives

SHERRILL >> “A family that swims together, stays together” could easily be the motto of the Glover family.

Al Glover started as a lifeguard at Sunset Lake in Kenwood six decades ago, well before the Sherrill Pool was built. Today, his granddaughter Emily O’Herien of Oneida has started the third generation of family lifeguards, carrying on the tradition Glover started when he was certified in junior lifesaving back when he was 15 years old.

Glover, a graduate of the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Central School class of 1960, recalled he worked only a few hours a week at the lake when he started as an alternate lifeguard in 1954. Back then, Sunset Lake was the popular swimming place in the area, offering both recreation and lessons.

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Admission to the swimming area then was just a dime. That area was divided into three cribs: the first and most shallow was for the beginners, the second for intermediate swimmers, and the third and deepest of all was for the more advanced swimmers and featured a dock, a 14 foot tower, and a diving board.

Sunset Lake turned out to be a popular “babysitting” facility for area parents, Glover quipped.

“We used to have people drop off their kids, go to work, and then pick them up again when they got out,” he recalled, harkening back to much more innocent times.

By 1961, Glover was certified as an instructor and life saving was his specialty course, he said.

When the Sherrill Pool opened in 1970, all of the Sunset Lake swimming activities moved there. Glover was the first director. He recalled on opening day sitting in the corner of the larger of its two pools, and at one point going underwater with his goggles on.

What he saw then was a big difference from the view underwater at Sunset Lake.

“I could see a good 75 feet straight across the pool,” he remembered. “Back at Sunset, you couldn’t see even seven feet underwater.”

Glover said there have been several All-American swimmers trained right there at the Sherrill Pool in the past. He still works part-time at the pool, now as assistant director.

His daughter BeeAnn O’Herien, a graduate of the VVS class of 1988, said she was in the water well before she was a year old.

“Growing up in this family you didn’t have a choice,” she said of their household, also including her mom Cindy and younger brother Laing, who became a lifeguard himself. “They put me in the water when I was only months-old … I was born in May and by July I was in the water.”

As a youngster, she was also expected to be at the pool every single day it was open for her swimming lessons, O’Herien said, and by the time she was 15 she also had taken life saving classes and started working at the Sherrill Pool.

“There were no summers off for me,” she said. “I worked every day.”

She recalled she used to reward her swim students with candy bars for feats like swimming the length of the pool or going off the now-removed high diving board, and often spent much of her paycheck buying them sweet treats.

One time she even took a group of the youngsters to the Darien Lake amusement park to see a New Kids on the Block concert. She said they always had an annual party at the pool featuring fun activities like trying to move a greased watermelon through the water.

That probably wouldn’t pass a health inspection now, she joked.

Back in her days as a lifeguard, there weren’t a lot of families in the Sherrill area with their own pools, O‘Herien remembered, so the pool was the popular place for them to go and cool off. The pool also served as a great “day care” for area children, giving them a safe and fun place to ride their bikes to and stay for the better part of the day.

She and her dad both agreed there is a single word -- “Walk!“ -- that every visitor to the Sherrill Pool will always remember, regardless of whether it was directed to them or someone nearby. For years, whenever someone went a little too fast on that wet and possibly slippery surface around the pool, that word resounded loudly from staff members as a stern reminder to slow back down.

Even with all of the great times she had at the pool, O’Herien lamented she missed out on the experience of swimming at Sunset Lake.

“All I have done there is fish,” she said.

Now, her daughter Emily, 16 and a junior at Oneida High School, has joined the family tradition by also taking the lifesaving course. She is now an alternate lifeguard at both the Chapman Pool in Oneida and the Sherrill Pool.

Her younger sister Mackenzie, 13 and an eighth grader in the Oneida district, said she expects to join that lifeguarding tradition herself in another couple years.

O’Herien said she is proud to be associated with the Sherrill Pool, and even has a co-worker who credits her for saving the life of her son one day there. She said she is always glad to be recognized for her relation to her dad -- likely the most well-known person in Sherrill thanks to his association with multi-generations of swimmers.

“I really like it when people still come up to me all the time and say, ‘I saw your dad the other day at the pool,’” she said. “He really has touched a lot of people over the years.”

Those people have gone from children to grandparents during his time at both Sunset Lake and the Sherrill Pool, and Glover said he enjoys meeting their offspring.

“My favorite part of this job is having all of the kids come back now as adults,” Glover said. “People I had as kids are now bringing in their own grandchildren. This is what the Sherrill community is all about -- having a great family place like this where people will come back for years to come.”

The Sherrill Pool is now open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and noon to 8 p.m. on weekends. Admission is $2 paid at the pool, but reduced price ticket packs and season passes are available at Sherrill City Hall.

About the Author

Mike Jaquays, a nearly life-long resident of Sherrill, is a freelance writer at the Oneida Dispatch. Mike graduated from St. Bonaventure University in 1986 with a degree in mass communications and is now on a quest to spotlight the extraordinary stories of ordinary folks. He also spanks a mean bass with the Oneida-based classic rock band Coston. Reach him at mikejake1164@gmail.com or follow Mike on Twitter @mikejake1164 Reach the author at mikejake1164@gmail.com
or follow Mike on Twitter: @mikejake1164.